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English football has been here before, though familiarity makes an ineffective
anaesthetic. Kiev can be added to Bloemfontein and Gelsenkirchen, Shizuoka
and Charleroi in the annals of England’s heartbreak. Once more, bitter
disappointment is beginning to give way to soul-searching and navel-gazing
and cries that something must be done.

There will be talk of making youngsters cherish the ball, demands for a winter
break, calls for St George’s Park to be more like Clairefontaine, or the
Ajax academy or La Masia, or whatever catches the eye of football’s
chatterati next, so as to save the next generation, to break the